I make earrings

Early this year I rather foolishly promised to make at least 48 pairs of earrings for the P&C Craft Group Mothers Day stall. Of course I procrastinated about it something shocking and really only got stuck into it properly yesterday. Here's what I've come up with (there's multiples of each design).

If you want to have a closer look all the individual pics are on my Flickr.

Lithgow Ironfest

Yesterday we hauled ourselves out of bed at 6:15am and headed off to Lithgow for a day at Ironfest with my mum in tow. The Huscarls had a paid gig there to provide a living history display so a bunch of them were camping Friday and Saturday nights but we decided it was all too hard and that we'd just come up for the day. I packed my bead making stuff but didn't end up using it as the club trestle table hadn't made it to the camp. When we arrived I couldn't wait to get into my dark ages kit, it was cold and windy and woollen clothes, a blanket cloak and a furry hat were just right. But I don't have a photo of me dressed up. Sorry.

Huscarls Encampment



Does he look cold? It was cold!

I went for a wander around the show and found someone doing wood turning using a pole lathe. Awesome! Adam has been wanting to make himself a pole lathe so I was going to send him over to have a stickybeak, then I saw the sign offering a 1 hour workshop each day, 2 people only. I asked and he still had one place free so I booked Adam in.

They started with logs, complete with bark, and had to split and trim the log with an axe and then shape the blank using a draw knife. Then it was turned using foot power and carved with chisels.

Shaping the timber with a draw knife



Fitting the blank into the pole lathe



Turning wood



And here's the end result!

Don't ask me what we're going to do with one chair leg though....

Here, have a video of Adam in action.

Half-way through the day my brother and his family turned up unexpectedly so the kids got to spend time with their cousins which was nice. We watched jousting, and I failed to get any decent photos of it.

We headed home about 5pm, it was starting to get a bit grey and the temperature was dropping. Here's what the Sydney Morning Herald says about Lithgow right now:

Lithgow Current Conditions

• Current temp: 6.7°C
• Recorded min: n/a
• Recorded max: n/a
• Feels like: 0.9°C

• Humidity: 69%
• Rainfall since 9am: 0.0mm
• Wind: W 52km/h
• Wind gusts: 94km/h
• Pressure: n/a

I can not begin to tell you how glad I am that we were there yesterday and not today! At least they're not being rained on.

Anne of Green Gables

Justine Larbalestier tweeted a link to "Best recap EVA of the Anne of Green Gable books" so followed and found myself reading The Ballad of Anne and Gilbert by Diana Peterfreund.

I only ever read the first couple of books in the series and it was so long ago I can barely remember anything about it but I still found it highly amusing.

From the Anne of Avonlea section:

"Marilla and Mrs. Lynde: Gee, that Anne and Gilbert are hanging out a lot together — well, as much as they can considering how far away he works and all. Bet they’ll be getting married soon.

Anne: Oh, you silly old biddies!

Gilbert: Anne, don’t you think they’ve got a point?

Anne: Huh?"

Quick Hit: Pot, meet kettle.

Clementine Ford's latest column, Thank you and please are two little keys, has me sitting here saying to myself "Did she really just say that?" in a kind of stunned horror.

The piece is supposedly about the importance of good manners but how on earth she can reconcile this:

The problem as I see it is a general lack of respect for our fellow human beings across the board. Having good manners is really no more complicated than treating other people as you would like to be treated.

with what follows is beyond my comprehension.

Just to pull out 2 things that really got my blood boiling. First up some parent bashing:

And if you must insist on bringing your children to the supermarket, please observe the universally acknowledged hours for this kind of activity. These take place between 9am and 3pm on Mondays.

What? Mon 9am - 3pm?! Yeah right, because no parent ever has to work during school hours and all parents owe it to the childless members of the population to ensure that they are never disturbed by having to share a public space with someone else's offspring. (If there's going to be gratuitous use of unfunny hyperbole then I'm bringing out the heavy sarcasm in retaliation.)

And right at the end this invitation to air your prejudices:

WHAT PARTICULAR TRAITS OR BEHAVIORS DO YOU FIND RUDE? IS IT BAD DRIVERS OR SLOW WALKERS WHO REALLY GET YOUR GOAT? LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW AND I’LL BE WITH YOU FROM MIDDAY TO VENT WITH GUSTO!

Slow walkers. She really did put that in there. I'm not imagining it. Holy shit.

If it's not immediately obvious to you why that last one is so horrifically wrong, here's some reading for you to do - read the comments too.

H/T lauredhel on twitter

What the heck...

Alix asks have you got the cajones?

Post a picture of yourself right now. As you are right now. As you read this. No running to get dressed or put on make up or fix your hair or whatever. Just YOU!

Anyone brave enough to play along? Ready... Set... CLICK!.

Apparently the answer is yes, yes I do. And here I am at 1:00am, slightly bleary-eyed but otherwise pretty much as you'd see me on any average sort of day. I didn't even need move from my spot on the lounge to do this, thanks to the webcam in my laptop.


Right, your turn now....

Things are improving - I'll be back properly soon!

Thanks for asking after me Alix :) I'm fine - much, much better than when I last posted - but still finding it difficult to focus long enough to write anything of substance. Fortunately everything kind of fell into place on Thursday last week. I got the animals out to the vets without a hitch and I caught up on the worst of my pile of stuff at work. School term ended giving me a reprieve from homework related kid-wrangling until almost the end of the month and I resigned myself to wearing the same outfit all weekend at Conference on the basis that it was certainly very authentic to have only one dress given that we're supposed to be re-enacting the dark ages :-)

I've been Twittering and Facebooking (those links go to my profiles on both) a little and blog reading plenty but getting back to posting and commenting is taking a little longer to come good.

Conference was good fun, we ended up being able to stay in hard accommodation, ie. a timber hut/tent-like structure, and therefore didn't have to put up the big tent which made the whole exercise a LOT easier. The kids all had a good time and I was in bed by 10:30pm each night. I've put some photos on my Flickr but haven't edited the titles or descriptions yet. I ended up going to work on Tuesday and Wednesday this week leaving Adam with the brood (he took leave for all of this week), hosted a PartyLite candle demo on Thursday night and on Friday we had a couple of David's friends over for a Dungeons and Dragons game to celebrate his 12th birthday.

I'm still staying up too late but that's ok because we're on holidays and I'm not getting up till half-way through the morning :P I've got a week and a bit to get my sleep patterns sorted into something rather more sustainable before school and work kicks in again, I figure if I get up 30 minutes earlier every morning I'll be all set *sets alarm for 10:30am for tomorrow*

Tomorrow I plan on making lots of jewellery, specifically earrings. I need to make 48 pairs for the Mothers Day craft stall at school and they need to be done by the end of the holidays. I also have 3 gifts to make and the kids want me to make them necklaces to wear with their dark ages outfits. Reckon all that should keep me busy most of the day!

Not blogging, not sleeping, not coping

It's 1:45 in the morning. I'm supposed to be taking the animals to be boarded for the weekend first thing tomorrow, have to leave the house at 7:30am. I've not made the clothes for myself that I wanted to get done for the reenactors' conference this weekend. I'm not being very nice to my kids. And I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff to do both at work and at home.

Stress = not going to bed. So fucking stupid.

*kicks self*

At least I'll sleep while we're camping, it's much harder to stay up too late when living in a tent.

11th Down Under Feminists Carnival

The 11th Down Under Feminists Carnival is up, this month's host is whyimbitter. Lots of great reading waiting for you there - go check it out!